Patriots-Lifer
Live the life you've dreamed
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2007
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Dear friends Just letting you know why some of my post recently have been a bit off center, As many of you know My late wife and I helped get a school and other programs started in Bethlehem inside the area of Palestine. It was time I made a trip back again. I came with some family and friends.
I send you greetings from the Old City of Jerusalem. The 8 of us are halfway through our sojourn in Palestine and Israel - we spent four days in Bethlehem, and are now in Jerusalem for five days before heading to Galilee in the north. And we have been experiencing people who are strong, bold, and courageous models of popular resistance to the domination systems and matrices of control of the Israeli occupation - agricultural, demonstrations on the front lines, children's and women's programs, liberation theology, the arts, conflict transformation, health care.
We are also aware of the Brexit vote in Great Britain, and the votes on boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) resolutions in the Presbyterian (PCUSA) General Assembly in Portland, OR, and the Unitarian Universalists in Columbus, OH.
We have met with good friends - Zoughbi Zoughbi (Wi'am Conflict Resolution Center, Bethlehem), Abdelfattah Abusrour (Arrowwad Theater Center, Aida Refugee Camp, Bethlehem), Daoud Nassar (Tent of Nations farm, Bethlehem), Rifat Kassis (Kairos Palestine), George & Najwa Sa'adeh and Rami Elhanan (Bereaved Parents Circle), Iyad Burnat (Bil'in creative popular resistance and protest - from Five Broken Cameras), and Rev. Mark Brown (Augusta Victoria Hospital, Mount of Olives, Jerusalem). More to come next week - in Ramallah, Nablus, and Ibillin.
Tomorrow we have a bit of a touring day - Jericho and the tel there, Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Ein Gedi spa where we will float in the Dead Sea.
In addition to getting to meet these incredible people and learning about their work, we have been discussing how each of our sojourners might find creative ways of sharing what they have learned when they return - through writing, speaking, the arts, film, music, organizing, and other means. Also, some of our group are exploring partnerships with the ministries here. The group is being very creative.
I hope my mind set while here has not made my post to odd.
I send you greetings from the Old City of Jerusalem. The 8 of us are halfway through our sojourn in Palestine and Israel - we spent four days in Bethlehem, and are now in Jerusalem for five days before heading to Galilee in the north. And we have been experiencing people who are strong, bold, and courageous models of popular resistance to the domination systems and matrices of control of the Israeli occupation - agricultural, demonstrations on the front lines, children's and women's programs, liberation theology, the arts, conflict transformation, health care.
We are also aware of the Brexit vote in Great Britain, and the votes on boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) resolutions in the Presbyterian (PCUSA) General Assembly in Portland, OR, and the Unitarian Universalists in Columbus, OH.
We have met with good friends - Zoughbi Zoughbi (Wi'am Conflict Resolution Center, Bethlehem), Abdelfattah Abusrour (Arrowwad Theater Center, Aida Refugee Camp, Bethlehem), Daoud Nassar (Tent of Nations farm, Bethlehem), Rifat Kassis (Kairos Palestine), George & Najwa Sa'adeh and Rami Elhanan (Bereaved Parents Circle), Iyad Burnat (Bil'in creative popular resistance and protest - from Five Broken Cameras), and Rev. Mark Brown (Augusta Victoria Hospital, Mount of Olives, Jerusalem). More to come next week - in Ramallah, Nablus, and Ibillin.
Tomorrow we have a bit of a touring day - Jericho and the tel there, Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Ein Gedi spa where we will float in the Dead Sea.
In addition to getting to meet these incredible people and learning about their work, we have been discussing how each of our sojourners might find creative ways of sharing what they have learned when they return - through writing, speaking, the arts, film, music, organizing, and other means. Also, some of our group are exploring partnerships with the ministries here. The group is being very creative.
I hope my mind set while here has not made my post to odd.
